Optical devices are finding increasingly widespread use in various fields such as communications, data processing, storage, and other technologies. In some cases, optical components are completely supplanting the equivalent electrical components. In other situations, components are manufactured which have both electrical and optical characteristics for use in hybrid technologies.
Optical couplers can be used to allow optical signals to interact with each other or in some way provide an interrelationship between the signals. One type of optical coupler uses two waveguides which run parallel to each other. Each waveguide is configured for coupling to separate optical fibers. As optical signals are passed from the optical fibers to the waveguides, the signals propagate along the waveguides. Due to the close proximity and optical characteristics of the waveguides, interaction between the two signals occurs. For example, one signal can be used to modulate an optical signal in the other fiber, one signal can be used to induce an optical signal in another fiber, etc. However, in many instances, optical couplers have undesirable optical characteristics which cannot be easily controlled.
There remains a need for optical couplers capable of achieving high linearity in the output across a wide frequency range. There remains a need for optical couplers capable of operating at lower voltages.
US 2007/0211984, US 2005/0259923 and US 2004/0240790 are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention, a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well only for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72. The abstract is not intended to be used for interpreting the scope of the claims.